Nibia and the ludic component

Abstract

This paper presents an interactive installation that questions the relationship between Uruguayan society and its recent past through the recontextualisation of a well-known photograph of Nibia Sabalsagaray, a young teacher and activist tortured and killed during the dictatorship. Viewers can use a lighter to burn areas of the projected image, but the image continually reconstructs itself. The work makes explicit the political relation between graphic representation and its consumption, while its interaction, message, and aesthetic setting resist being perceived merely as a game.